Novalin 'Nova' Melanson
History Novalin 'Nova' Melanon was born to her fairly wealthy parents and lived what others would consider a dream life. She went to school, lived in a large house, and had parents that loved her. Living among the wealthy in a rich area of Mallaston, Nova's family was obsessed with looking rich. Nova followed the practice, desperate to fit in with her peers. She grew up with her parents constantly telling her she needed to work hard and get a well paying job. Being towards the top of her class, Nova spent much of her time studying and maintaining her grades. She had accepted that a relationship would have to wait until she had more time in her life. However, this changed when Ellis, a friend in many of her classes and a frequent study partner, asked her out. She agreed, sharing similar feelings, and their relationship worked out pretty well since they were both focused on their school work. He seemed to be the perfect match for Nova, coming from a similar family dynamic and going through similar social situations. When Nova's grandmother died of old age, she was devastated. Her grandmother had practically raised her as her parents worked long hours. She had been the one that Nova learned many of her skills from, and was the only person that knew about her magi abilities, and encouraged her to practice her favorite; water. During this time, Ellis took the opportunity to tell Nova about his secret plans to run away and start a new life. At first she was entirely against it, afraid of how devastated her parents would be, and of how she would have to abandon all the plans she and her family had arranged for her future. Ellis, however, was persistent, and convinced her that what had been planned for her was not what she wanted, and that she would not be happy perusing the life that she was headed towards. He told her that the world was being cruel to her by taking her grandmother away and that the world is cruel to those that are too pure-hearted. He also mentioned that he had friends that would be able to put in a good word with their employer and get him a job fairly quickly. Convinced that this plan was what she wanted, Nova agreed, and that night after her parents went to bed she ran away with Ellis. She had no idea where they were going, but she didn't care. Her head clouded with grief and thinking that the world will only continue to be cruel to her, she was content with leaving her old life behind. She was tired of living up to the standards of others, and found the idea of making her own decisions exciting. Ellis brought her to a bar, and told her to wait outside while he went and grabbed some acquaintances. He returned with a couple of similar aged boys, who drove them to a part of the city Nova had never been to before. It was more run down than the pristine area she was raised in, but she trusted that Ellis knew what he was doing. They were dropped off in front of another pub, which Ellis had clearly been to before. He led her directly to a table where the friends he had mentioned were sitting. He told them that he was finally going through with his plan, and his friends were clearly excited. They directed him to go to his new home, and that they would take care of the rest. Ellis brought Nova to a small apartment within walking distance of the bar. It was very different from the lavish house she had grown accustomed to, but she liked how much cozier it was. The next day Ellis went back to the bar, but Nova stayed home to do some housekeeping and straighten the apartment out. He came home later that day, officially employed under The Underground, something that Nova had not heard about and assumed was the name of the bar. At first, Ellis worked what seemed like part time. He would get a couple days off a week, and only be at work for a few hours otherwise, with the exception of the occasional day that he worked the whole day. But pretty soon he was working full days, and sometimes be gone for multiple days. Nova didn't mind too much. She enjoyed having the time to think and practice her water magi in private, and she didn't mind having to struggle with money. However, this changed when Ellis began to treat Nova with less respect. It started with the occasional complaint about dirty dishes and not having enough money, and grew into him controlling every aspect of her life and treating her like an object. He stopped allowing her to leave the house as frequently and complained about everything she did. He began to physically abuse her when something at work hadn't gone as expected and she remained positive. In these times he reminded her that the world was only cruel to her because she was too optimistic and passive. Whenever she threatened to leave, he would beat her and threaten her life. She became too scared to disobey him and accepted that this was the life she was stuck with. Through details shouted at her in heated arguments and beatings, she came to realize what The Underground really was, and finally understood the reasons behind Ellis' long work days. One day Ellis came home early and told her that they needed her help at work. Confused, but terrified of questioning his demands, she walked to the pub with him. He led her over to a group of mostly men, who gave her a once over and said that she was definitely a good candidate. Before she knew it, she was handed a change of clothes and given a location. She obediently changed in the next room, a pit forming in her stomach. She knew that something was up, but she was too afraid to defy these men. Out on the street and standing at the right location, she felt eerily alone, even tough the group had promised to stay close. And then it happened. She felt the pressure of an object being pushed inter her back and the tense whisper of a man behind her say, "I have a crossbow, don't try to run or yell or else I will shoot." Terrified, Nova obeyed. The stranger led her a few blocks down the street and through an alley to a backdoor. The man opened it and led her inside. He tied her to a post and began to rummage through her pockets. Frustrated that she had nothing, he began to yell at her, saying that this was supposed to be how he fed his family for the month, that the commission he gets for turning an Underground into the authorities would not be enough. Out of frustration he hit her over the head with the crossbow, just as The Underground men barged into the room. She slowly slipped into unconsciousness to the sounds of crossbows being fired, screams and blades hitting wood, followed by the unique feeling of a stream of stranger's blood and the smell of burning flesh. She woke up on the floor of the pub, her head spinning and ears ringing. She could hear the clinking of beer mugs and shot glasses as the men and few women drank to their success of "ridding the area of another lowly competitor". They began boasting about how he begged for mercy, and the way he pleaded for his kids not to be slaughtered in front of him. Nova, for the first time in her life, was furious. She felt all her built up rage towards Ellis for bringing her into this life and letting her being used as bait, but mostly towards these men for slaughtering innocent children in front of their father. The world had been cruel enough to her, and it was her turn to be cruel to it. She stood up, the back of her left pulsing. Most of the men behind the bar looked surprised to even see her standing. One, however, was downing a shot. Nova stopped it in his throat, thrusting the strong liquid deep into his lungs and crushing them. He fell to the floor, feebly attempting to use his crumpled lungs and spitting up blood. Ellis ran to his side while the others took arms. But Nova's rage only fueled her power. She thrust bullets of vodka through the skull of a woman beginning to point a crossbow at her, enjoying the sound of her enemy's skull fracturing as the condensed beads burrowed through her head. Emptying a glass on a nearby table, she formed a small wall of water up as another threw a knife at her, catching it in the transparent barrier. Looking into his eyes, she watched as she propelled a sheet of water towards him, burrowing it in his neck. And now, only Ellis remained. Nova savored the look of sheer horror on his face, the fear that burned behind his eyes as he looked up at her was so satisfactory. All he could manage to utter was "Nova" before her knuckles connected with his jaw, snapping it shut and sending him reeling to the floor. His expression, tinged with pain, gave her a rush like no other. It empowered her knowing that he no longer looked at her like she was worthless. God how she hated feeling worthless. But being seen as something, no, as someone who mattered changed something in her. And she realized, this is exactly what Ellis had been teaching her all along. He needed a taste of his own medicine, and he was due for a large dose. She walked over to where he had landed. He looked up at her and pleaded, “Nova, please, you know I love you.” She snorted, “I’d believe that if you hadn’t been using me as a punching bag for the last few months. And what have I ever done to you?” With that she delivered a kick to his ribs, knocking the breath out of him. She was screaming now, feeling a blinding sense of anger. “Do you know how many times you took your anger out on me when all I wanted to do was make you happy?” She kicked again, this time at his hip, but he caught her foot and yanked. She fell to the floor, caught completely off guard. Ellis took his chance. He drew his knife and thrust himself on top of her. She grabbed at his wrist, attempting to control the hand that held the weapon. Ellis’ eyes were now crazed with adrenaline, “You know what, you’re right. I’ve treated you like shit and beat on you. But you have never considered the one thing that kept me from beating you to death,” He locked eyes with her, “and that’s defying me. But now, you’ve finally given me the chance to kill you. And you can only blame yourself for that.” He plunged the dagger down, striking Nova right above the left collar bone. She screamed and fought against his weight as the blade sunk into her flesh. “The world is cruel, Nova, and I’ve taken my place on its side. It’s too bad you didn’t join too.” He pulled the blade out, sending a renewed shoot of pain through her body. She screamed, and attempted to roll out from under him, but he grabbed her by the back of the neck and shoved her head into the ground. He plunged the blade once again into her right side. She shrieked, and felt her own blood begin to pool underneath her. “Aw, poor Nova,” Ellis said, pouting his lips in false pity, “Did the bad man touch a pretty little hair on the princess’ head?” Her vision began to blacken on the edges as excruciating pain gnawed at every nerve in her body. Then she felt the wet flow of blood on her left hand, and knew that she wasn’t completely helpless. She formed feeble beads of blood that she blindly flung at Ellis, striking him in the chest and face with just enough force to burrow into his skin and cause him to draw back. Nova escaped his clutching fingers, turning only to aim the next blow. Feeling her strength fading fast, she drew more of her blood, this time directly from the wound in her right side, and hurled the newly formed pellets of red at Ellis. She put all her remaining strength behind these projectiles, burrowing them deep in his abdomen. She watched, as he staggered backwards, and lost his balance. Collapsing to the floor, he writhed in pain, and began coughing up blood. Breathing heavily, Nova watched as Ellis struggled for air. She felt rattled to the core, as she had never been in such a brutal brawl, and had never taken anyone’s life before. However, that same brokenness she felt from the fight seemed to release something within her, something dark, something freeing. And she knew that she beat Ellis. She was the final victor, and it felt so renewing to finally overcome him, to reduce the man who used to abuse her to a pathetic heap. Nova stood up and shuffled over to Ellis, wincing at every step she took. She stooped and put her face near his ear and said in a soft voice, “This is the closest you will come to understanding what you have done to me; to understanding the person you have turned me into.” She stood and made her way out of the bar, listening to the gruesome sound of Ellis’ labored breathing as she made her slow exit. It was still night, probably early morning, as Nova staggered to her apartment. Luckily, the streets were abandoned at this time of day. She opened the door, entered her apartment, and locked the door behind her. She made her way over to kitchen sink, running the water and lifting her shirt to assess the damage, knowing that she couldn’t go to a hospital without having to file a guard report and being the suspect in multiple homicides. She started with the stab wound on her right side. The wound was deep, and still bleeding. Too weak to use her magi abilities, she began splashing water over it to try and clean the clotted blood that had covered her side. She found a small sewing kit, and after a while of convincing herself that she could tolerate the pain, began to suture the wound with a shaky hand. She took one of Ellis’ shirts (he shouldn’t need those since he was bleeding out on the floor of a bar), and cut it into strips. She tied the makeshift bandage around her waist to try and stop the bleeding. Looking at her shoulder she found the same, and repeated the process. She managed to shuffle over to the couch, and ended up falling asleep, exhausted after the night’s events. She roused from her sleep sporadically, checking the clock and watching as the day went by. She woke up around 6:45 p.m. She sat up slowly, extremely sore from the night before and her stab wounds now throbbing and sending splitting pains through her body. She started rubbing the remaining exhaustion from her eyes, but stopped when she thought she heard a faint click come from the entryway. She looked up, but passed it off as nothing when she didn’t hear anything else. She slowly stood up and made her way towards the sink to wash her hands, which were now splattered with clotted blood. She looked down at her shirt. There wasn’t much of the original color left after being soaked with the both the blood of her kidnapper along with her own. The red had turned to more of a rust color and was now stiff and flaking off in areas where it had folded. She unwrapped the injury on her right side, assessing her far from perfect stitching job. Then her hand shot up to the side of her neck as a sharp pain sent a fresh rush of adrenaline through her body. She was surprised to find her hand meet that of another person’s holding a small, thin object. Another arm clamped around her waist as she began to struggle, desperately trying to free herself from the holds of an intruder. But the hand on her neck was put, the arm around her waist steady, as she squirmed in futile desperation to escape, and reopening the stab wound on her right side. Then the sedative began to set in, making her limbs heavier and heavier until she not only was unable to fight back, but also unable to support her own body weight. Her arms went limp at her sides, her legs giving out underneath her. She couldn’t fight the overwhelming weight of her eyelids as she slipped into blackness. Personality Magic Skills Profession Artifacts OOC Notes Category:Characters